HomeMy WebLinkAboutA007 - Letter to Planning and Housing from GK Development dated January 26, 2007 a-.2 a7
DEVELOPMENT, INC.
January 26, 2007 Email & Certified Mail Return Receipt Requested
Mr. Steve Osguthorpe L
Director
Department of Planning and Housing JAN 3 1 2007
515 Clark Avenue
Ames, Iowa 50010
Cil'Y CLEhK
CITY OF An^ES,IOWA
RE: Adaptive Reuse Application dated
December 12, 2006
Dear Steve:
As of this writing, we have not yet received the "additional comments" you had
mentioned were forthcoming on or before January 24, 2007.
As discussed in our meeting last Tuesday at 5:00 pm at your offices, a correction
needs to be made to a portion of the staff report that was provided to city council.
First of all, we have never made a submission to renovate the mall which did not
change the footprint. In fact, if we didn't change the footprint, we wouldn't need
to go to planning staff at all, we simply would pull a building permit. This has
been done several times in the past two years— every time we renovate space
for a new tenant.
Expanding the size of the project is necessary and desirable for the community
and ownership but the expansion did not cause the site fall into non-compliance.
The project was built in compliance with the then current codes and regulations;
however, if the exact mall was built today from ground up, it would not be in
compliance with current codes. The so-called "trigger" that necessitates new
code compliance has been debated by the city's former and current
administration. In fact, our legal representatives have even still a different
interpretation which I will not go into at this time.
Although we have been working with city staff since early 2005, the most recent
submittal concept started in April, 2006, followed by a four month gap waiting for
the city's suggestion that we move forward with adaptive reuse application.
Please let me know if you need a copy of the associated correspondence on this
timeline.
GK Development, Inc. ■ 303 E. Main Street,Suite 201 ■ Barrington,IL 60010 ■ phone 847-277-99.30 ■ fax 847-277-9940
}R
Mr. Steve Osguthorpe
January 26, 2007
Page Two
In October of last year, we submitted a preliminary plan to staff and received
preliminary comments. We addressed these comments, held neighborhood and
Smart Growth meetings, both which were open to the general public. We then
contracted additional multiple third party consultants at great expense to produce
the adaptive reuse application.
On December 20, 2006, we received preliminary comments from staff; these
comments were upgraded to "Final Staff Comments" on December 22, 2006
following the Development Review Meeting of the same date. Even though we
received even more comments following the "final' list, we have addressed all
questions and comments.
As you can appreciate, we were taken aback that at this late date, even more
comments are coming. The need for a city council meeting shocked us to say
the least. I think we all agree that the appropriateness of adaptive reuse for our
site should have been determined in April 2006, not in the final stages of an
expensive eight month process.
The delays to date have been costly, especially in light that competitive projects
have moved forward during the same time periods. Please forward the "additional
comments" to our attention as soon as possible.
Thank you.
� r
Daniel J. Su n
Senior Vice President— Development
cc: Garo Kholamian — GK Development
Greg Kveton — GK Development
Ted Tzegiannakis — GK Development
Kurt Carlson — GK Development
Pat Burk, Esq. — Bradshaw, Fowler, et al
Seana Perkins — City of Ames
Steve Schainker— City of Ames
Doug Marek, Esq. — City of Ames
Ames City Council
CK Development, Inc. 0 303 I:. Main Street,Suite 201 • Barrington,IL 60010 0 phone 847-277-9930 • fax 847-277-9944